Police say DUI checks to rise

Escondido police say they plan to increase the number of DUI checkpoints in the city over the next year.

The department plans to conduct 12 DUI checkpoints during the next 12 months – an increase of three over the past two years, when it set up nine each year.

Officers will work overtime to operate the checkpoints, which will be paid for using two-thirds of a $263,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety.

“It would be very difficult for most communities to do these without some kind of fiscal help,” traffic Sgt. Dana Ray said yesterday.

Over the past two years, 47,699 cars passed through the city's DUI checkpoints, Ray said. Under constitutional restrictions, police aren't allowed to stop all drivers, but they did stop 20,284, Ray said.

Police ask drivers for valid licenses. They also look for signs of intoxication. If a driver has young children, they check to see whether they are in car seats.

Ray said police gave 216 field sobriety tests at the checkpoints over the past two years and made 69 DUI arrests. He said 839 drivers had their vehicles impounded for 30 days, most for failing to have a valid driver's license. Police also made 49 arrests for criminal activity.

The DUI checkpoints are in addition to the city's controversial driver's license checkpoints, which are conducted during daytime hours. Critics have said those checkpoints are a ruse to enforce immigration laws, but police have denied that, saying they are intended primarily to reduce the number of hit-and-run crashes caused by unlicensed drivers.

Ray estimated that this year's grant nearly doubles the amount of money that can be spent on overtime to operate the DUI checkpoints, patrols for intoxicated drivers and warrant sweeps.

Escondido Lt. Mike Loarie said the grant for the past two years was larger – $851,000 – but portions of it covered staffing and equipment now in place.

In addition to the DUI checkpoints, police plan to conduct 10 DUI patrols. Those patrols have netted 37 DUI arrests over the past two years, Ray said.

Police plan to conduct five warrant sweeps related to DUIs. Ray said 218 attempts by Escondido police to serve warrants over the past two years led to 47 arrests.

If you've got a warrant for your arrest, “you can turn yourself in at your convenience,” Ray said. “Or you can wait for us to come and find you, and I guarantee it won't be at your convenience.”